“Oh, yes.” Vee adjusted the pouch with quick motions and tucked it back under his shirt, hiding it once again. “Is Vee knife.”

“A knife?” Jess said. It had quite a long handle for a knife. “That must be quite a knife.”

Vee laughed as he stirred his boiling kettle and smelled its contents once more. “Is problem for Jess? Vee thought Prophets knew Mother-dwellers carried knives.”

“For beast attacks, I know. It’s just… I thought that, well…”

“You think Speakers different?”

Jess shrugged in response.

“Oh, Jess,” Vee laughed as he sprinkled a green, flowery-smelling powder into the boiling liquid. “Prophets must have very strange idea of Speakers. Speakers human just like Prophets. But Prophets, even some Mother-dwellers, think Speakers more special than human.”

“Hmm,” Jess sighed, looking away from Vee. She was starting to wonder if she was wasting her time being so long away from business on Sevens. The Sept needed her at The Pinnacle, and here she was making beer and talking. “Hmm.”

“Oh. Oh no, Jess. Did Vee make Jess lose faith in Speakers? Hehe. Vee only speak different than Jess. Prophet can move big pot without touching it. And here Jess is upset to realize Vee, who has to pick up pot, is not more than human. Hehe.”

“You’re right, Vee. I did come here to learn something.”

“And now Jess start thinking Jess not able learn? Think Jess made mistake finding Speakers?”

Jess didn’t say anything, but knew she couldn’t hide her answer from the man.

“Is okay, Jess,” Vee said as he took a peek out the single, tiny window in the brew-house, checking the position of the sun to tell time. “Little while left. Wort will be done shortly. As for Jess, Vee can only say if Jess not know why Jess come to Speakers, Vee laugh to think Jess think Jess will find something.”

Jess shook her head. “Tell me something, Vee, you’re in charge here right?”

“Hmm. Jess not given up searching for something. Vee hope Jess know questions will not satisfy what Jess want.”

“I’m not trying to be cryptic, Vee, I’m just curious. I had to go through decades of training, experience, and politics to get where I am. Leader of the Speakers may be a smaller title but it’s prestigious in its own right. So tell me, how does a brewer get to be leader? It can’t be just your beer and your smile.”

“Oh. Vee just help others when—”

“Humility is a trait I find in all Mother-dwellers, Vee. I respect that. How did you earn your position?”

Vee shrugged as he added a few more logs to the fire, sparks flying out the iron door as he stirred the flames to add more heat. “Saying Vee’s smile win leadership not completely wrong. Speakers all speak all time. Tough to find one voice when so many speak. Vee have strong voice. Others listen when Vee speak so Vee named leader. Won’t last very long but Vee enjoy helping while Vee where Vee is.”

“So you don’t know how long you’ll be leading them?”

“Speakers have meetings sometimes. Is very easy to pick new leader when every Speaker able to speak and understand speaking at same time. Vee sure Jess’s being picked leader took long time.”

“And a bit of paperwork, yes.”

Vee laughed and said, “Speakers not need paperwork. Speakers not need vote. Everyone know how everyone feel. That means Speakers know how everyone want village to be led. Speakers took very little time in last meeting to decide on Vee being leader. Speakers also chose to send out five Speakers to trade with closest city, but that other matter.”

Jess lowered her eyebrows in thought. Though she knew Vee wasn’t looking at her, she was pretty certain Vee could feel the curiosity behind her change of expression.

“Jess find this confusing?” Vee asked.

Jess used her pen’s power of awareness to search the countryside for a significant spark of life. Two hundred miles away she felt the presence of a city of ten thousand Mother-dwellers. A few seconds of concentration on the life there, the feel of the city in her White-driven power, revealed the city’s name.

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“Is the city named Oliver?” Jess asked.

“Vee could tell Jess was using Jess power. Jess give off very interesting feelings when Jess concentrate so hard.”

“Like what?”

“Nothing new to Jess. Simply imagine Vee knew exactly what Jess felt when Jess was using Jess power.”

Jess blinked, not sure if this discovery was a violation or an intriguing joy. She decided to think more on it later. “Do you send Speakers to cities often? You’re always so private, hidden away from everyone. I would think interaction with a city might be dangerous.”

“No, not dangerous. Speakers not like going to cities but for other reasons. Other Mother-dwellers cannot tell Speakers from other Mother-dwellers. Speakers nothing more than quiet travelers to others, unless Speakers want to be obvious about being Speakers.”

“I guess that’s convenient.”

“Hmm,” Vee said, a noise that seemed too excited to be a response to Jess’s statement.

The Prophet paused, thinking Vee was going to say something, as his attention was now focused on the part of his wall where a large pair of tongs and a metal strainer hung. “Excuse me,” Jess said, tapping the Speaker on the shoulder. Vee brushed Jess’s hand away before she could touch his shoulder a second time. He took a step to the wall as if he could see something on the other side.

“Stay here,” Vee said finally, quickly making his way to the door. “Watch boil.”

“What?”

“Watch boil. Add little cold water if start to boil over. Jess must not allow to boil over.”

“If it’s that important, why are you leaving?” Jess asked as Vee opened the door.

“Not to interrupt what…” Vee said, his voice trailing off as he nearly ran out the door and toward the opposite end of the village.

Jess followed him as far as a few steps outside the brew house before Vee shouted back to her, “Watch boil!” and took off running toward the forest at the opposite end of the village, past the meeting circle, where it looked as if most of the village was already gathering.

Like a child having to go to bed while the other children played, Jess felt rejected and longed to see what curiosity lay beyond the wall of excited Speakers. She considered using her status as Blesser and Matriarch reason enough to ignore this insignificant leader’s orders. Her status as a guest to the Speakers, however, convinced her that patience and humility were necessary to achieve her goals, so she returned to the brew house and checked on the boiling pot.

It smelled thicker, full of more flowery graininess that she assumed was what a beer such as this was supposed to smell like. As she slowly stirred the rolling liquid, Jess used her power to give her an awareness of events outside. Her glowing white pen and her White power enabled her to see the village as if through a third eye. The sensations of life permeated her emotions as thick as the smell of the beer in front of her.

That sensation was what revealed the commotion; there were more people in the village than before. Jess was certain she could feel the presence, with her White powers, of at least three more individuals. “Visitors,” Jess said to herself, wishing the Speakers had shown as much interest in her arrival, then immediately subdued such foolish thoughts of jealousy.

“Matriarch,” a voice said in Jess’s head.

“Blesser,” Jess silently corrected.

“Forgive me. Blesser, have you finished your objective?”

“I asked you not to contact me.” Jess stared into the boiling, brown wort and couldn’t help but have her thoughts travel to the Pinnacle, and the Sept Chamber where the White Chair was most likely speaking to her from.

“Again, forgive me,” the White Chair said in a tone that almost visualized the man bowing in respect. “Hawrendrin has been eager for you to return. He insists that if you do not have a recruit willing to come to Sevens by nightfall that you should return alone.”

Even if she had come to Mother with the intention of recruiting, Jess knew it was foolish to think she could do it over the course of an afternoon, especially with a Speaker. “Hawrendrin will just have to be patient,” Jess said.

The following pause indicated that the White Chair was passing this information on to the Gold Chair. “He says that is not an option. Several Golds want to go after Shane again. The Mills are researching gunpowder. Ten Reds from Triumph have given up being Prophets to try and restore the Truscan Empire and one had to be restrained from doing so as a Prophet. The Whites on Home need guidance with the credit crisis after the war. Not to mention the Union of Soul has—”

“Stop. Enough.” Jess had come to Mother to escape these difficulties, not have them hunt her down.

“Hawrendrin says you must be here to offer guidance. A decision must be made.”

“I know what is going on.”

“Hawrendrin also adds that the recruitment of a Speaker is not worth the continued absence of the Matriarch,” the White Chair added.

“Blesser,” Jess corrected.

“The Sept needs your guidance. Blesser.”

“The Sept is responsible for all the problems that you listed.”

“Excuse me?”

“I will not render judgment on the seven planets until I know for sure our intervention will not cause further suffering.”

“Blesser,” the White Chair’s voice in Jess’s mind laughed, “your decisions stopped the war on Home, ended a corrupted empire, stopped—”

“At the loss of nearly a hundred Prophets and the confidence of a vast population.”

“Consequences are a result of every decision, Blesser. Hawrendrin says he is confident the Sept has made the correct decisions thus far and has benefited the whole. If you feel under pressure, Blesser, Hawrendrin offers his assistance.”

Jess cringed as she stirred the boiling wort so fast she nearly slopped a little over the side. “No.”

“So you will return tonight?”

Jess looked out the open doorway, to the gathered Speakers openly celebrating the new arrivals. She could feel the excitement like a summer’s breeze and wondered what fantastic event would occur tonight. “Yes.”

“Even if you don’t find what you were looking for?”

Jess paused, a shock of caution rising in her from the Chair’s choice of words. Then she realized that this statement was not a warning, but a show of support. Yet she hoped that Hawrendrin hadn’t been able to decipher her purpose on Mother, as the White Chair apparently had. “Yes,” Jess replied with a firm sense of finality, “I will return tonight regardless of circumstance. And tell Hawrendrin that the Sept is not to sit until my arrival.”

“Yes, Matr…Blesser,” the White Chair replied and cut his psychic, intergalactic connection.